Who gave this game its raving reviews on Steam?

[Draky]

The supply system is hilariously unrealistic & very simplistic, arguably worse than the one shipped with the game in 2016. Profoundly bugged too.

The new focus trees are hilariously ahistorical, and dont even get me started on "Stalin's paranoia" which seems like it was taken verbatim from one of the reagan era robert conquests' books.

The game is arguably the worst balanced it's ever been. You can supply a million troops with 2 transport planes, unlock all air doctrines with 300 fighters as volunteers in the spanish civil war, etc.

So I'm wondering, how is that possible that the game's sitting at 93% positive reviews from the past 2 weeks with the DLC being at 78%? This makes no sense to me. Do people just buy it and then not play the focus trees nations? Do they play it having no idea how the supply system works (and therefore how bad it is)?

 

[coffeelingfine]

What's wrong with the supply system. Fighting feels so much more strategic now with the supply hubs

 

[Iskulya]

What's wrong with the supply system. Fighting feels so much more strategic now with the supply hubs

Does it?

Oftentimes the new supply system is draconian to the point you will be taking high amounts of attrition even just going directly along the railroad from one supply hub to another. This seems excessive when we're talking about having only like two divisions per tile on the front line. It feels like supply because a constraining and crippling factor far too easily, even when you're dealing with relatively small number of divisions that don't consume much supply.

It's not really strategic if the system is so harsh that you're just going to be taking attrition all the time with any kind of even early game fighting concentration. That's frustrating, not strategic; you just have to write off attrition losses and move on.

I think there is a lot of potential for it to be fun and strategic, but right now the scales feel too tilted in the direction of being too harsh. It's going to be a tough act to balance. If it goes too far in the other direction, then the new system is pointless and we're back to the old status quo.

 

[Vin55]

The thing is hubs take too long to build, and it is there were is goes to the troops, but there is a range limit, for example getting the hungarians through austria is not possible withouth cas even if it is plains, because there is no supply hub and it takes super long to build, there should be smaller hubs, being build in the time of a civillian factory. The game is ok though, tanks are usless atm, and air is even more king, but the focuses are good and fun.

 

[Fulmen]

The new focus trees are hilariously ahistorical, and dont even get me started on "Stalin's paranoia" which seems like it was taken verbatim from one of the reagan era robert conquests' books.

Is it just me, or do the people who take issue with this mechanic, in the sense that it is somehow "propaganda" that is portraying Stalin "wrong", invariably have Soviet flags or Soviet generals as their forum avatars?

On a more serious note, I am curious, what is it exactly that you find wrong with it? If I had to guess, you don't find representing Stalin's Great Terror as fueled by his paranoia wrong because it was actually coldly calculated by Stalin, or to quote Stephen Kotkin, who is in the process of writing the final book in his three-volume mammoth of a biography on Stalin: "The evidence for an extremely high degree of calculation behind the terror is overwhelming.", but rather because you believe there was actually some kind of genuine threat to Stalin, or perhaps that it wasn't Stalin at all who was behind the Great Terror, but rather his underlings. Am I correct in this assumption?

 

[jju_57]

I did.

The game is arguably the worst balanced it's ever been. You can supply a million troops with 2 transport planes, unlock all air doctrines with 300 fighters as volunteers in the spanish civil war, etc.

See it's comments like these that actually hurt your credibility.

Show us some screen shots where 2 transport planes are supplying a million soldiers. You won't and can't. You have zero credibility.

 

[Metz]

There are too many supply hubs. There should only be supply hubs in urban centers/ports and in non-urban centers/ports have supply caches. The capacities should be bigger in urban centers/ports and smaller in the field. This would make it more strategic to take urban centers in a war. At the same time, make field hospitals buildable in urban centers, ports, and in the field. In the field, the trickle back rate is smaller than in urban centers/ports. They would then have a healing radius similar to air missions. This way you don't need to have a field hospital in a division template as a support company.

 

[AlextheSwift]

The supply system is hilariously unrealistic & very simplistic, arguably worse than the one shipped with the game in 2016. Profoundly bugged too.

The new focus trees are hilariously ahistorical, and dont even get me started on "Stalin's paranoia" which seems like it was taken verbatim from one of the reagan era robert conquests' books.

The game is arguably the worst balanced it's ever been. You can supply a million troops with 2 transport planes, unlock all air doctrines with 300 fighters as volunteers in the spanish civil war, etc.

So I'm wondering, how is that possible that the game's sitting at 93% positive reviews from the past 2 weeks with the DLC being at 78%? This makes no sense to me. Do people just buy it and then not play the focus trees nations? Do they play it having no idea how the supply system works (and therefore how bad it is)?

The playerbase wanted more control over the supply system. Paradox gave them more control over the supply system. Don't hate the player hate the game. (no pun intended)

Yes, they are hilariously ahistorical.... ever since Waking the Tiger in 2018, Paradox going completely ahistorical in Hearts of Iron 4 is nothing new. They even went ahistorical on the historical path.

The thing is, the vast majority of players are not interested in historical accuracy, they just want "something there" and in rest would rather have Paradox work on game mechanics, they can't do both with a limited amount of time and resources.

I mean, you have a game where you can form the Roman Empire, Third Bulgarian Empire, European Union before World War II and your issue is Stalin's paranoia?

And a game where Yugoslavia can break itself apart and just put itself back together and now it works, and it can also core Hungary and Transylvania for some reason. Transylvania who also has a core on West Banat for some reason. While on the historical path, Germany doesn't form Croatia.

All of these issues can be easily fixed with a few lines of code, in literally minutes. And the testing can be done afterwards, not much is altered anyway. But Paradox doesn't care because the vast majority of players don't care and Paradox follows the money.

The vast majority of players are more interested in new game mechanics rather than historical accuracy, and that is what they get, and that is why they buy the game, and that is why the game has many poisitive reviews.

 

[Harin]

I can imagine that for brand new Paradox players, this DLC looks like a hot mess. The developers have told us that the majority of players play on easy mode. That majority most likely had little clue about what was going on in the past and I suspect they have no desire to learn now. *EDIT Not saying they are lazy, just saying the learning part is not part of the fun for them. *END EDIT. They just want to win with little effort. For them to log in now is just a waste of their time. They may need to wait until other players learn the new systems and post easy ways to win.

I am not new. While not a good player, I do have a general feel for the rhythm of Paradox games and their releases. Right now I am having a great time with the DLC. Yes, it has bugs, major not working as intended bugs and hundreds of smaller bugs, down to typos and syntax. Since experienced players know this is normal, I am not going to pretend to be shocked or angry while playing a Paradox release the day it comes out.

For Paradox, This .Is. The. Way.

I am having a blast playing Russia. I chose to play on Elite, not because I am good, but because I figured the AI would need patching to use the new systems and I wanted a challenge. Well the AI is using the new systems to spank me and prove how mediocre I am. That is a good thing. I tend to learn the most when struggling. For example:

• I found out that you actually need to make AA guns, because that CAS really hurts. I love it! The game was stupid simple before, to the point you did not need to research 70% to 80% of the technology to win. I mean really, pure infantry holding a line? This is supposed to be a WW2 type game, not fantasy. It feels so right to have to build something besides tanks and planes. The punishment for not doing so is powerful enough that even new players should get the message. I suspect that is realistic and good game design.
• Aircraft losses feel very different now. I cannot put my finger on why yet, but I do like it.
• You need to actually build and/or reinforce your supply lines! The supply depots have very short ranges and they need trucks and trains. I do believe supply depots take to long to build and to much CIC, especially in the early years up to 1941. If the range of a depot with maxed trucks is only three provinces, then attackers need to be able to build depots on the front lines without crippling their industry and taking to long. One solution might be to increase the number of trucks needed at depots, but reduce the time and CIC to build depots. The trucks and trains represent the moving parts of the game's supply system anyhow, since the actual ammunition and supplies do not exist as distinct things in the game. The depot is just a staging area that has roads built around it and lots of flat space to park hundreds of trucks and stack hundreds of thousands of boxes out in the open and maybe some temporary tents and buildings to shelter certain items that do not need to get soaking wet.
• Logistic support companies may become important on the Russian Front, even in SP.
• Trucks are important again. Don't run out, which is very realistic. The Germans used trucks to move supplies to the front, like everyone else. They used horses and wagons inside the operational units, because Germany needed every available truck to move supplies to the units.
• Tanks are still powerful, but something is different now. They do not feel stupid powerful to the point you use them to take mountains and jungles like in the past.
• In the few games I started, the AI was more than capable of pushing me and holding their line. The stats on the AI divisions were impressive. Before this DLC, I could play Elite and not lose a single tile to Germany. They would just suicide on an impregnable wall of infantry with rifles. That sounds so wrong doesn't it? I so hope that silliness is gone for good.
• The paranoia system competing with the need to remove debuffs from the military gives the Russian player something real and important to do while waiting for June 1941. I know people are offended by the paranoia name, but it is a great new tool added to the game. I cannot wait to see what modders end up doing with it in the future. Maybe modders will even come up with a name that does not offend those complaining about it.
• Getting Army XP takes some serious thinking now. The old way was so easy I totally forgot about using attaches to help me with the new way. Yep, losing makes a person to start thinking again.

There is a lot of new things I am learning and I am having fun.

 

[Anna_Gein]

I can imagine that for brand new Paradox players, this DLC looks like a hot mess. The developers have told us that the majority of players play on easy mode. That majority most likely had little clue about what was going on in the past and I suspect they have no desire to learn now. They just want to win with little effort. For them to log in now is just a waste of their time. They may need to wait until other players learn the new systems and post easy ways to win.

Funnily enough I recently started to play both EUIV and HoI4 on easy or even very easy difficulty as I felt like the balancing and the core design philosophy is of little fun if not outright punishing on normal difficulty. I mean take technologies in HoI4 : so many have been added over the years yet we are still stuck with 4/5 technology slot. At this point even as a major it is impossible to have a reasonably up to date armed force in all three domains (land, air & sea) on normal difficulty.

It is the first time I do it since I started Paradox games when CK2 was released. I have like 800 hours on CK2, 650 hours on EUIV, 800 hours on HoI3 and 550 hours on HoI4. It is not just a matter of laziness or a wish to win with little effort. Due to the way recent games and recent DLCs are developped, it is getting less and less fun to play on normal. In a sense, I am not suprised the devs themsleves play on easy or very easy. But it is definitly the sign that something is wrong atm.

Back on topic the DLC review rating is slowly coming down. I think have to wait a few weeks before the rating becomes of any useful indication. As for the game rating, it seems normal : HoI4 base game is wonderful (or at least was).

 

[Vin55]

I can imagine that for brand new Paradox players, this DLC looks like a hot mess. The developers have told us that the majority of players play on easy mode. That majority most likely had little clue about what was going on in the past and I suspect they have no desire to learn now. They just want to win with little effort. For them to log in now is just a waste of their time. They may need to wait until other players learn the new systems and post easy ways to win.

I am not new. While not a good player, I do have a general feel for the rhythm of Paradox games and their releases. Right now I am having a great time with the DLC. Yes, it has bugs, major not working as intended bugs and hundreds of smaller bugs, down to typos and syntax. Since experienced players know this is normal, I am not going to pretend to be shocked or angry while playing a Paradox release the day it comes out.

For Paradox, This .Is. The. Way.

I am having a blast playing Russia. I chose to play on Elite, not because I am good, but because I figured the AI would need patching to use the new systems and I wanted a challenge. Well the AI is using the new systems to spank me and prove how mediocre I am. That is a good thing. I tend to learn the most when struggling. For example:

• I found out that you actually need to make AA guns, because that CAS really hurts. I love it! The game was stupid simple before, to the point you did not need to research 70% to 80% of the technology to win. I mean really, pure infantry holding a line? This is supposed to be a WW2 type game, not fantasy. It feels so right to have to build something besides tanks and planes. The punishment for not doing so is powerful enough that even new players should get the message. I suspect that is realistic and good game design.
• Aircraft losses feel very different now. I cannot put my finger on why yet, but I do like it.
• You need to actually build and/or reinforce your supply lines! The supply depots have very short ranges and they need trucks and trains. I do believe supply depots take to long to build and to much CIC, especially in the early years up to 1941. If the range of a depot with maxed trucks is only three provinces, then attackers need to be able to build depots on the front lines without crippling their industry and taking to long. One solution might be to increase the number of trucks needed at depots, but reduce the time and CIC to build depots. The trucks and trains represent the moving parts of the game's supply system anyhow, since the actual ammunition and supplies do not exist as distinct things in the game. The depot is just a staging area that has roads built around it and lots of flat space to park hundreds of trucks and stack hundreds of thousands of boxes out in the open and maybe some temporary tents and buildings to shelter certain items that do not need to get soaking wet.
• Logistic support companies may become important on the Russian Front, even in SP.
• Trucks are important again. Don't run out, which is very realistic. The Germans used trucks to move supplies to the front, like everyone else. They used horses and wagons inside the operational units, because Germany needed every available truck to move supplies to the units.
• Tanks are still powerful, but something is different now. They do not feel stupid powerful to the point you use them to take mountains and jungles like in the past.
• In the few games I started, the AI was more than capable of pushing me and holding their line. The stats on the AI divisions were impressive. Before this DLC, I could play Elite and not lose a single tile to Germany. They would just suicide on an impregnable wall of infantry with rifles. That sounds so wrong doesn't it? I so hope that silliness is gone for good.
• The paranoia system competing with the need to remove debuffs from the military gives the Russian player something real and important to do while waiting for June 1941. I know people are offended by the paranoia name, but it is a great new tool added to the game. I cannot wait to see what modders end up doing with it in the future. Maybe modders will even come up with a name that does not offend those complaining about it.
• Getting Army XP takes some serious thinking now. The old way was so easy I totally forgot about using attaches to help me with the new way. Yep, losing makes a person to start thinking again.

There is a lot of new things I am learning and I am having fun.

air is the same, cas was nerfed, the meta was anti air, logistics does not work as intended, with the rail hub check and transport planes are broken, 50 of the is enoguh to get all of the sudan area supplied for 2 24 30wth armies. Logistics is notimportant in russia but against the allies because of unit stacking to the limit. The ai also still does a ton of usless naval invasions especially the russians, though it got better at defending. The focuses are nice, but there needs to be some rebvlancing of smaller things like getting generals and so on.

 

[Leinad965]

Funnily enough I recently started to play both EUIV and HoI4 on easy or even very easy difficulty as I felt like the balancing and the core design philosophy is of little fun if not outright punishing on normal difficulty. I mean take technologies in HoI4 : so many have been added over the years yet we are still stuck with 4/5 technology slot. At this point even as a major it is impossible to have a reasonably up to date armed force in all three domains (land, air & sea) on normal difficulty.

It is the first time I do it since I started Paradox games when CK2 was released. I have like 800 hours on CK2, 650 hours on EUIV, 800 hours on HoI3 and 550 hours on HoI4. It is not just a matter of laziness or a wish to win with little effort. Due to the way recent games and recent DLCs are developped, it is getting less and less fun to play on normal. In a sense, I am not suprised the devs themsleves play on easy or very easy. But it is definitly the sign that something is wrong atm.

Back on topic the DLC review rating is slowly coming down. I think have to wait a few weeks before the rating becomes of any useful indication. As for the game rating, it seems normal : HoI4 base game is wonderful (or at least was).

What are you doing with research? They just removed 3x35 technologies from research tab with removing doctrine research...

 

[Anna_Gein]

What are you doing with research? They just removed 3x35 technologies from research tab with removing doctrine research...

I have barely played with NSB.

And with what little time I spent o it, it still feels impossible to have decent armed forces unless you ignore the entire navy branch.

 

[Shinkuro Yukinari]

Is it just me, or do the people who take issue with this mechanic, in the sense that it is somehow "propaganda" that is portraying Stalin "wrong", invariably have Soviet flags or Soviet generals as their forum avatars?

On a more serious note, I am curious, what is it exactly that you find wrong with it? If I had to guess, you don't find representing Stalin's Great Terror as fueled by his paranoia wrong because it was actually coldly calculated by Stalin, or to quote Stephen Kotkin, who is in the process of writing the final book in his three-volume mammoth of a biography on Stalin: "The evidence for an extremely high degree of calculation behind the terror is overwhelming.", but rather because you believe there was actually some kind of genuine threat to Stalin, or perhaps that it wasn't Stalin at all who was behind the Great Terror, but rather his underlings. Am I correct in this assumption?

Aren't you the guy who went on a tirade against the devs for "pandering to the tankies" for correcting various inaccuracies?

 

[OllyOllyOxenFree]

The new focus trees are hilariously ahistorical, and dont even get me started on "Stalin's paranoia" which seems like it was taken verbatim from one of the reagan era robert conquests' books.

And you want to say what exactly? That Stalin was level headed when he purged the army?

 

[OllyOllyOxenFree]

Is it just me, or do the people who take issue with this mechanic, in the sense that it is somehow "propaganda" that is portraying Stalin "wrong",

Might also be a Tankie

 

[Devourer1987]

I gave it a positive review on steam. There are a few bugs and things that need balancing, but playing as russia (or against it) has never been more fun or interesting.

Also Stalin was responsible for many countless deaths and was not a good man, although he was a strong enough leader in a certian way to help the Soviets win the war. Paranoia is a perfectly good word for what was going on at the time. He was paranoid about people attacking him (sometimes he was right but often he was wrong... the paranoia was based on snippets of fact, as paranoia usually is). He is not defensible though, he was a dictator and was reprehensible. Why would you want to make it sound like anything else other than paranoia? To defend him? Surely not!? This isn't some strange altered or slanted history from an outside perspective, these are facts collated by many highly respectable academics over many years. Stalin was a bad man, but had a certain strength that may have helped keep things together enough to win the war. He was paranoid.

 

[Poopfaust]

My eyes are bleeding. About 12 hours into the beta patch as Germany. This DLC is awesome..., I mean, like really awesome. PDX has not let us down.., THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Hungrydingo]

It's aggravating at first, but I'm starting to figure it out. I think it slows the pace down a little which was needed. Germany no longer steam rolls the Soviet Union after breaking that initial line of troops. Offensives run out of steam and need to regroup for a bit, tanks can't just be thrown into battle carelessly. You have to make more decisions as you go , the war isn't so easily won in the build up to the war. These are good things.

 

[Mr.Arrow]

I don’t know what you’re talking about. The new supply is a massive improvement over the old supply system.

You can control your own supply path unlike the old one, so that’s a big win win to me. Not to mentioned, building railways is actually fun to look at.